


No Stopping Anytime

by QueenE



Series: Dumbos of a Feather Flock Together [1]
Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Wings, Angst, Coffee, Coffee Shops, First Meetings, Fluff, Happy Ending, Humor, Lonely Tony, M/M, Meet-Cute, My First Fanfic, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Wingfic, Wings, but not really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-21
Updated: 2020-04-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:47:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23773309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenE/pseuds/QueenE
Summary: Everything about Tony's day screamed boring, routine, tiresome. Meeting his potential soulmate in the most humiliating manner possible wasn't supposed to be in the cards, but stranger things had happened. Just his luck.
Relationships: Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Series: Dumbos of a Feather Flock Together [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1737142
Comments: 48
Kudos: 214





	No Stopping Anytime

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you for taking a chance on this fic and on me. Some of you may know me from comments on other fics, Discord, kudos threads, Twitter, and/or Tumblr. If this is your first time meeting me, hello new friends! If you read the tags you'll know that this is my first fic (which is shocking considering how many fics I've read), so I hope you enjoy it! Special thanks to Anam, Big Mush, RiaRose, Auggusst, Starksnack, and everyone on the POTS server who helped and encouraged me, without you guys this would probably be in my Google Drive trash can! Extra thanks goes to [FestiveFerret](https://festiveferret.tumblr.com/) who kindly beta'ed this for me, you're awesome and I'm endlessly grateful~

It was a glorious morning. The glorious-est of glorious mornings. A morning like no other. The birds were chirping, the sun was shining, the good vibes were vibing, the juju was flowing—

“ _Anthony Edward Stark get your ass down to the board meeting now I refuse to put up with these entitled trust fund babies by myself_!” Pepper yelled on cue, almost as if it was scripted. Just like that, all sense of tranquility was shattered, and in retaliation, Tony shuffled his blanket lump, or what he called his "artful cocoon,” further away from the source of the sound. So what if he didn’t want to waste his life away at a board meeting where nothing would be accomplished except a bunch of middle-aged white men posturing and measuring their proverbial dicks against one another? Was that such a crime? 

“Tony I swear to God if you don’t answer me in 10 seconds...” 

Distantly, he heard Pepper counting in the background and he knew he should answer, he really did, but his mouth refused to cooperate. He knew that Pepper meant business. It was why, after continuing to be CEO of Stark Industries for a year following his return from Afghanistan, he had made her CEO after all. But he had also gone to bed barely four hours ago and, if he were a weaker man and _not_ the genius he was, he might even have admitted he was a _little_ tired. 

Exactly ten seconds later, his blankets and pillow were cruelly torn from him, leaving him in just a pair of boxers. His jet black wings instinctively curled around him to preserve warmth, and he blindly made grabby hands for his stolen possessions. 

When he had finally blinked his eyes open, he was greeted with a sight that would even strike fear into the gods. Pepper’s green eyes were blazing, a vein in her temple was subtly pulsing, her bronze and copper colored wings were puffed up and angrily twitching, and Tony was 99.9% sure that this was where his story ended. 

“You. Had. _ONE._ Job.” Pepper shook her head in exasperation and chucked a pile of clothes at Tony’s head. “Put these on and be at the meeting in 15 minutes or so help me God you will not live to see another day.” She was almost out the door when she abruptly turned around, smiled wickedly, and in a saccharine voice said, “Oh and don’t worry about making coffee before you get there. I’ve kindly informed JARVIS that you’ll be having your morning coffee at the meeting. See you later.” Before he could protest, she was out the door, leaving Tony to get changed.

Tony groaned as he flopped onto his stomach, rubbing the last vestiges of sleep from his eyes. He knew if he really wanted to, he could get out of the board meeting, explain to Pepper that he hadn’t been sleeping well and use the other crap he’d been dealing with as an excuse, but that wouldn’t be fair to her. They had been best friends since they had met at MIT, and her taking on the CEO position had been a win-win for both of them. Tony now only has to go to four quarterly meetings a year and had an exponentially greater amount of time and freedom to spend doing what he loved: engineering, tinkering, and creating. Meanwhile, Pepper fulfilled her dream of becoming a female CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Not to mention how Tony was pretty sure he would be dead by now without her. Well, her and Rhodey, but his favorite honeybear was a member of the Air Force and out of the country right now. 

“You have now laid there for five minutes. I strongly recommend you get up and get ready for the day sir,” JARVIS kindly reminded him. 

“Thanks J,” Tony said as he groaned into the sheets before stretching, flapping his wings a few times to work out any kinks, and then finally getting out of bed. After brushing his teeth and combing his hair, he flew over to where Pepper had dumped the clothes. As he always seemed to do since Afghanistan, he paused and looked in the mirror, his eyes hovering over the severe scarring on his chest. It was disgusting, grotesque, a mess of raised bumps and ridges and dark lines, Tony shuddered, pushing away the pervasive memories. He forced himself to instead focus on what Pepper had picked out for him, to her credit, she had an impeccable sense of style and he quickly changed. He was careful to make sure that he positioned his wings correctly through the slits of the chosen white undershirt and black Tom Ford suit jacket. Once that was done, he put on the matching suit pants, plain white socks, and a red tie with small white dots. He gazed in the mirror at the finished product, it highlighted all his best features, particularly his black wings which looked healthy and vibrant, especially during the day when the red undertone and occasional golden streak seemed to create a subtle “glow” effect. Oh, and of course his ass too. Couldn't forget that. 

Just as JARVIS began yet another reminder, Tony hustled out the door and reached the board meeting room in record time, with approximately 2 minutes on the Pepper timer left. She was already sitting down by the time he got there, but he knew she was going to leave after opening remarks, since she had other meetings and CEO bullshit to attend to. And at least she knew he arrived “on time” which was the important part. 

Sighing, he pointedly ignored the other men in the room who were all staring, waiting for him as he grabbed his promised breakfast, and more importantly the large thermos containing coffee from his favorite coffee shop, and prepared to settle in for the long haul. The meeting was scheduled to run from noon until 3 PM but Tony had a sneaking suspicion that it might go over.

Within the half hour that it took to do opening remarks and complete the obligatory show and tell (AKA dick measuring contest) between the other board members, Tony’s life-model decoy blueprints were already sketched out on his StarkPad. Within another hour, Tony was out of breath and patience and he just couldn’t bring himself to once again repeat to these dimwitted, close minded, pieces of shit why his most recent developments for implementing clean energy and minimizing their carbon footprint were both necessary and important. He had known coming into the meeting that it would make no difference what he said, that they would all just come to their own conclusions, but Tony still had to try. This mission was important, his own personal redemption. Giving up on it wasn’t an option. However, Tony also knew that he needed to pick his battles, so he settled back in, rolled his eyes, and resisted the growing urge to try his luck with jumping out a window.

And so the real fun commenced, Tony got the pleasure of listening to “budget this” and “can we really afford to do that” and on one memorable occasion “HAVE YOU LOST YOUR FUCKING HEAD, WINSTON?” He let all of these comments roll off his wingtips, though, instead focusing on the word search he was not so subtly working on under the table. 

His phone display was still in dark mode from the night before, so, in a fun twist of events, he was scouring the black background looking for the four coveted white letters that would spell the word “anam,” meaning soulmate in gaelic. Tony didn’t like to brag, but he had upgraded his word search game to words in foreign languages or names of uncommon plants for added challenge. A good two minutes later, he finally let out an, “aha!” after finding the word, prompting Mr. Smith, one of the board members, to glance over. “Do you have something you want to share with the class Mr. Stark?”

Tony blew out a breath as he internally berated himself for not celebrating his victory a little quieter. “No, I don’t think so. In fact, I think you and the other lovely gentlemen here are doing a stellar job of running this meeting all by your big boy selves.” 

Mr. Smith scoffed, rolled his eyes, and turned away, clearly deciding that it wasn’t worth the effort to engage. Tony didn’t want to admit it, but that did sting a little. Not because Tony gave a rat’s ass about what Smith thought, but because whenever this type of situation happened he couldn’t help but wonder how much better his dear ol’ dad would have handled it. And that sucked in and of itself because the _only_ thing Howard had ever been good at was being a businessman; he certainly wasn’t a good father, Tony could say that much from first-hand experience. 

Internally shaking himself off to ditch that depressing train of thought, Tony silently stretched out his wings which were beginning to feel cramped in his chair, and turned back to his game. He was now scouring the black and white screen for the word “cremini,” the name for a type of little mushroom that was popular to cook with. Within minutes, he was back in the word search zone and the sound of the meeting into dull white noise in his ears. 

***

At 3 PM the meeting did not end, which was fun and quirky of it, but rather took a much needed lunch break. At this point Tony’s coffee had been chugged, a few hairs pulled out, and his sanity frayed. He had to stop himself from sprinting out the doors once the word was given that they could leave, instead politely excusing himself to fly a block down to Cool Beans! one of his favorite coffee shops located a block away. Because it was a little tucked away, it wasn’t as crowded as some of the other coffee shops in New York during off times, and from the inside you could relax and people watch as you pleased. 

Normally, Tony would call Happy to drive him, instead of flying down the street to a coffee shop. It wasn’t too far away though, and the morning rush hour had passed, so Tony figured it would be fine to stretch his wings. He even grabbed a baseball cap and a pair of tinted sunglasses.If Happy found out, he would probably have some type of seizure, but for now, what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. 

By the time Tony entered the shop, he was practically salivating. The shop smelled heavenly, the perfect scent of freshly brewed coffee and pastries tempting him to go in and never leave. He quickly staked out his favorite window seat and then went up to order. 

“Hi, could I please have—”

“Say no more, Mr. Stark,” the barista replied with a smile. He quickly took Tony’s proffered credit card, swiped it, and gave it back to him with a kind smile, saying, “Have a great day.” He looked to be new at the job because Tony didn’t recognize him, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Tony figured that a fellow employee must have given him the rundown on Tony as he was a regular at the cafe, and they all knew to give him the strongest coffee they had on hand in the largest portable container they had. In return, Tony gave extremely generous tips so really it was a win-win. 

In record time, his coffee was ready. Today it was delivered in a gallon sized black Hydro Flask that Tony cradled like a baby as he made his way back to his seat. He had no idea where the various jugs and bottles they gave him came from, but he always made sure to clean and return them. He figured that just this once in his life he was content to not know the answer, as long as the godly nectar that was their coffee kept on coming. 

Speaking of which, Tony promptly unscrewed the lid and chugged a few mouthfuls of coffee, relishing the burn of the hot liquid. Immediately, he began to feel more awake, his senses buzzing, even his wingtips were tingling. After safely recapping the bottle, he began to survey the people around him. His gaze caught on what looked like a sandy colored haired man and a caramel colored haired woman in their late 20s sharing a first date. He was too far away to hear what they were saying, but they both kept smiling, tipping their heads back in laughter, and their wings looked relaxed too, twitching every so often in amusement so Tony figured it was going well. He was envious, not of either of them specifically—although, they were both stunning and could probably make a fortune in the modeling industry. The man’s hair appeared golden in the sunlight, and his russet colored wings were sleek and well-groomed. The woman had soft looking dove grey wings and wispy hair that she kept tucking behind her ear. But no, Tony wasn’t jealous, in fact, he thought they were lucky to have found one another. He simply longed to experience the connection that relationships brought first-hand. 

You would think that being 28, bisexual, and one of the world’s most sought-after bachelors would help his case, but it didn’t. From the time he turned 18 until he had been kidnapped in Afghanistan two years ago, he had squandered his time and money, drinking, partying, and having more one-night stands than he cared to admit. That had only been exasperated when his parents had passed away in the December after he had turned 21. And, well, karma really was a bitch, because now Tony couldn’t find a relationship even if he wanted to, or at least it seemed that way. He couldn’t sleep through the night without waking up drenched in a cold sweat from nightmares, was hyper-sensitive about the scarring on his chest, and of course his past playboy reputation didn’t do him any favors either. That really didn’t sound like a winning combination, even to his emotionally constipated ears.

Tony sighed morosely, his wings drooping slightly, before uncapping the Hydro Flask and chugging some more coffee to make himself feel better. At least coffee would always be there for him. And yes, he had Rhodey and Pepper, the two lights of his life, and he really shouldn’t be complaining since they were the best things to ever happen to him, but he just couldn’t help it sometimes. He was lonely, so sue him. He had just pulled out his phone to check what monotonous soul-sucking emails he had received when he heard a familiar voice ask, “Room for one more?”

Tony glanced up to find Pepper standing over him, smiling softly. His mood instantly lifted, his wings perked up, and he chuckled, before replying, “Did Happy send you here to check up on me? I don’t need a babysitter, you know.” 

She scoffed, rolling her eyes before replying, “I think we both know that that’s not entirely true, Tony. For instance, I seem to recall a time when I left you to take out the pizza from the oven for _five_ minutes and I came back to you screaming, wielding the fire extinguisher as you tried to put out the fire that had started in the oven.” 

Tony rolled his eyes in reply. “I think you need your memory checked, Pep. I’m a genius and most certainly would never have done such a thing—”  
  
“There was also that one time when I was helping you reorganize in your lab, turned my back for ten seconds, heard you scream, and then looked back to find you bleeding, having sliced your hand open on an X-Acto knife.”

“Ok, ok,” Tony consented, grumbling into the lip of his borrowed Hydro Flask. “I get it, alright?” 

Pepper laughed. “As long as we’re on the same page. Speaking of pages, how did the meeting go?” Tony couldn’t suppress the pained groan he let out in response. Just the thought of the meeting had his head thunking against the table, his wings spreading up and forward in an effort to cover him. “That bad, huh?” 

Tony nodded from under his wings, his head still sitting on the table, trying to think of words that could possibly convey the utter travesty the meeting had been so far. He decided against it, considering that once Pepper asked him what was talked about, he wouldn’t be able to answer since he shamelessly hadn’t paid attention. He really shouldn’t be blamed for that—those meetings were a snoozefest—but he knew Pepper wouldn’t feel the same way, so instead he sat up and launched into his full-fledged conspiracy theory that he had cooked up during the meeting. 

“I think the board is out to kill me. That’s undoubtedly the only logical explanation as to why a routine meeting has lasted for THREE whole hours so far. _THREE_ Pep! And we’re not even at the halfway point! I mean, just think about it! It makes perfect sense! Especially since these men are also the ones whose jobs make you spell the unintuitive, frankly asinine word ‘business’ on the reg which is a whole other issue—”

Pepper sighed fondly, her wings twitching amusedly. “You can’t just say stuff like that Tony. Remember, we don’t want to actively antagonize them. Also, I can assure you they don’t want you dead. They would much prefer you failing to hide how you're on your phone all meeting, every meeting, than a dictatorial monster. Additionally, you’re a businessman too, Tony, so I think holistically your argument falls flat in a few spots. And don’t think I don’t know that you’re just misdirecting because you were playing your boujee word search games again.”

Tony sheepishly looked away, not bothering to deny it. “I can’t help it, Pep. Watching paint dry would be more engaging. Besides, at least I was there at all. I was debating just yeeting myself—”  
  
Pepper rolled her eyes. “Please don’t finish that sentence, and for God’s sake, never use any form of the word ‘yeet’ ever again. I don’t think the world could handle it.” Tony knew she was mostly joking, though, since she was smiling her patented “Pepper is somewhat amused but doesn’t want to enable Tony any more than she already does” smile, as she said it. The moment stretched on until Pepper glanced at her watch, and Tony already knew what she was going to say. 

“Pepper light of my life, sister from another mister, ho from another bro—” 

“Tony, for your sake please stop there. And don’t think for one _second_ that you can get out of this. You’re going back to that meeting if I have to drag you there myself. And we both know I can and will do that,” Pepper threatened with that dangerous glint in her eye that she got when she was ready to take names. Tony wilted in reply, conjuring up his best kicked puppy look. She sighed. “I’m sorry Tony, you know that I don’t like meetings any more than you, but this was the agreement and you can’t get out of it unless you want a lot of people to be pissed or through death. Actually, pretend I didn’t say that. I don’t want you to get any funny ideas.” 

“You know me so well Pep.” Tony laughed. He quickly sobered up, though, as he mentally reviewed his day. This meeting was looking like it was going to stretch until probably 6:30 PM and, assuming it ended then, he'd have at most a half hour break and then it was off to bang out some deadline work. His body ached all the way to his wingtips just thinking about it. He allowed himself one more self-pitying table head thunk before getting out of his seat and gathering his things to leave. 

“I have to go now, Tony but I trust you know the way back to the meeting without me chaperoning you. I’ll know if you arrive on time.” And with that parting remark, Pepper gracefully speed walked out of the cafe and was lost to the sea of people on the street. 

After ensuring that his precious Hydro Flask was carefully secured in his grasp, he left the cafe, making sure to wave goodbye to the employees on the way out. He didn’t waste any time, lest he trigger Pepper’s wrath, and grudgingly flew back to the Seventh Ring of Hell. As he arrived, he was once again faced with the amazingly welcoming glares of the board members, who Tony was convinced had all somehow conspired to arrive before he did to be as intimidating as possible. It didn’t work, of course, because Tony was above that type of behavior, but it still took a moment of readjusting. Once they realized that their group intimidation efforts had failed, though, the board members quickly settled into their places and picked up from where they left off. Where that was, Tony wasn’t quite sure, but then again he couldn’t be paid to care at this point so he settled into his chair, unlocked his phone, and decided to massacre anyone who decided to challenge him at Trivia Crack. He would start with Rhodey and then see where the Trivia Crack powers that be took him. 

***

After losing an additional two hours and thirty-six minutes of his life to The Meeting for a grand total of five and a half hours, at 6:36 PM he was finally free from one ring of Hell only to rush off to finish up deadlines. He hated that word: “deadline.” Like, what line was there? Where was it? And why was it dead? Who even made up the word? 

Shaking his head, Tony flew back to the Tower, and after changing into a pair of comfy black jeans and a ratty red NYC t-shirt, he immediately went down to the lab. He smiled as U, Butterfingers, and Dum-E came up to greet him, and he waved at them as he began to get everything set up. Cracking his knuckles, after firing up the blueprints he wanted to work on first, he rubbed his hands together and announced, “It’s show time!”

From then on, time became meaningless. Who even was she? All Tony knew were blueprints of transparent, less obstructive solar panels that both businesses and average consumers could buy, business emails that oh so politely told him to hurry the fuck up on various other projects, schematics, and the occasional 3-D rendering. All of this, of course, serenaded by the wonderful sound of Tony’s playlist of AC/DC’s best hits. 

An unknown amount of time and an inordinate amount of coffee chugged later, AC/DC was muted and instead JARVIS’ voice quietly filled the workshop. “Sir, if I may be so bold as to suggest a break, you have been working non-stop for four and a half hours now and your vitals suggest that eating dinner would be a good idea.” 

Tony glared in betrayal. “My own creation, my own metaphorical flesh and blood—THIS IS TREASON!!!” Tony bellowed, shaking his fist like someone out of Shakespeare’s plays. He had half a mind to tell his _precious_ vitals to go fuck themselves, but he knew if he didn’t want to be greeted with a text the next morning from a disapointed Pepper that he would have to consume some type of sustenace (that wasn’t coffee). Tactfully retreating from this battle, he had JARVIS shut everything down as he grabbed a leather jacket, sliding his wings through the slits, and then hastily stuffed his feet into a pair of basic, white sneakers, and flew outside. Just as he was leaving, he had JARVIS place his usual order at the local Italian restaurant Tony loved for faster dining. 

Tony raced to the restaurant, loving the feeling of the wind rushing through his feathers and hair. Thankfully there were not that many people out on the sidewalk so he didn’t have to worry about crashing into them and royally embarrassing himself. He made it there quickly, was seated, and more or less blanked out as he robotically inhaled his beloved carbonara. He swore that no other restaurant did it as well as this one, and he would stand by that until the day he died. Once he was done with his carbonara massacre and had chugged a sufficient amount of water, there was no point in lingering around so he quickly paid the check and was on his way. 

Let it be known that running on only coffee and sleep deprivation was not a winning combination, Tony thought sluggishly to himself as he made his way back to the Tower. He was exhausted, his wings blending into the shadows and dark lighting, doing the bare minimum to keep him afloat as they drooped behind him. At almost midnight, after an exhausting day of meetings and deadline crap, every cell in Tony’s body was screaming to just collapse and take a power nap on the sidewalk. Just for a short while, so he would have enough energy to make it the last quarter mile.

However, he was unfortunately still lucid enough to realize that if he did that, it would be a disaster waiting to happen, and he didn’t want Pepper to murder him alive. He had known that even after Pepper became CEO that it wouldn’t be easy, but he had also never thought that his gravestone would read “Tony Stark. Killed by business meetings.” He sighed, already loathing the idea of going to bed alone. He had used to scoff at how people said that having an empty nest was the worst, but now he realized that they had been right all along and he had just been too on his high horse to realize it. He longed for the intimacy of going home and sharing a meal with a partner, talking about their days, cuddling, kissing, experiencing firsts together, making memories, knowing that someone had his back and always would, having someone groom his wings and care for his wellbeing. The mushy tenderness of it all that would have made past-Tony puke, but now just made him sad and his feeling of loneliness that much more prevalent. 

Shaking off that train of thought, Tony tried to console his tired brain with the fact that he was only a block and a half away from his destination and if he really needed to, he could wrap blankets around himself and knock himself out with a few sleeping pills. As he reached the block the Tower was on, he saw a man on the other side of the street, who was drop dead gorgeous. Maybe God _was_ real, maybe every cloud did have a silver lining after all. Even in the dark light, Tony could make out a pair of pure white wings protruding from a muscular back, which was attached to a broad pair of shoulders, which were attached to bulging biceps, which were attached to lovely forearms, which were attached to beautiful artist hands with long fingers— 

At that moment, Beautiful Buff Blondie glanced up at him and they locked eyes. He had to force his wings to keep flying slowly forward, instead of towards the handsome stranger. Their gazes remained locked until he finally managed to drag his eyes away from the captivating blue eyes to the radiant smile BBB (as Tony had abbreviated it to in his head) was giving him. The smile didn’t last as long as Tony would’ve wanted though, before BBB’s eyes darted to look at something just behind Tony, his face quickly becoming alarmed. Tony whipped his head around to look at what had caught BBB’s attention and—

_CLANG_

Tony suddenly found himself on the ground without the faintest idea or recollection of how he had gotten there. All he knew was that the world was spinning and his head hurt like a bitch. He tried rapidly blinking his eyes to see if that would help, but all he saw was a white and red sign that vaguely reminded him of a no stopping anytime sign and—

Son of a bitch. He had really just given himself a concussion by flying and whipping his head directly into a damn street sign because he had been so thirsty that he just couldn’t have looked away from BBB who now probably thought he was a complete idiot. Taking a few deep breaths, he began to register vague yelling, but it was as if he was hearing it through a tunnel. Or, like, an ocean trench. Actually scratch that one, Tony had had enough of his head being submerged in water to last a lifetime. He decided to focus on the sound, closing his eyes again until he could make out words.

“Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh you’re not moving your eyes are closed what are you doing please wake up God please wake up I need you to WAKE UP DAMNIT!” 

Tony groaned _super_ sexily in his attempt to reply, moaning in pain as he tried to form and articulate a coherent thought. 

“Are… does that mean… are you alive?” 

Tony decided to try multi-tasking again, blinking his eyes open and giving a little whine of pain. Surprisingly, it was bearable, although probably not recommended, and for his troubles he was rewarded with seeing the bluest eyes to have ever existed. Frankly, BBB looked a lot like an angel, with the white wings, the fair skin, the blonde hair, and of course the aforementioned eyes. 

In fact, “Did it hurt when you fell from heaven?” Tony slurred _really_ gracefully. The Angel, which was the name Tony decided he would call him from now on (damn he was just burning through the nicknames), meanwhile looked like a deer caught in headlights. Tony watched him for a few seconds before interrupting him. “Could you… off the ground… please.” 

That jump started The Angel into action as he quickly stammered, “Yes, of course, I’m so sorry, what am I thinking, here let me—” he quickly scooped Tony up effortlessly and helped him sit down gingerly on a conveniently located bench. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to make you hit the sign. I swear, I just was distracted by you, and then I saw the sign, and—” Tony held up a finger to The Angel’s mouth, or what he had guestimated to be his mouth, in the universal “shh” signal. The Angel then promptly clammed up, and they sat there in silence together. 

Eventually, once Tony’s head didn’t feel as if it would stage a mutiny against him, he, very carefully, tried to stand up. Miraculously, his legs held. He didn’t push his luck and try to fly, since even in his fuzzy brain he knew that wouldn’t be a good idea, but he was only a couple buildings away from the Tower, so hopefully he could manage to walk. He turned to his rescuer, the most beautiful person he had ever met, already grieving over how he had completely and utterly squandered his likely one and only instance of having luck in meeting someone he could see himself having a relationship with. Sighing, he convinced himself that he was fully prepared to tell The Angel thank you and that he could manage from here. Fake it til you make it, right? He would try to save whatever was left of his dignity and they would go their separate ways and would probably never see each other again. 

“So—

“Do you—”

They laughed. Tony gesturing to The Angel in a “you first” motion. 

“Do you want me to walk you back home? I’d feel a lot better if you’d let me. I won’t come in or anything. I would just really like it if I knew you got back safely.” 

Well. This was a turn of events. “I mean… you do know who I am and that I live literally a few buildings down, right? In that big, ugly building that no one else seems to like the design of? If it’ll really make you feel better, I won’t stop you, but I don’t want you to go out of your way unnecessarily…” Tony trailed off awkwardly. 

The Angel adopted a confused look on his face. “Why would I know who you—” His eyes widened exponentially as he yelled, “OH SHIT!” The Angel immediately blushed after his exclamation and rubbed the back of his neck, “Uh… excuse my language. I just, wow I never thought I’d meet you, Mr. Stark. This is all just… wow.” A pause, and then, “Am I going to get arrested? Not that that’s a huge issue, I’ve been arrested before and I could probably get out of it, but I’d still really rather not. It’s a bit of a hassle, and you know what? I’ll shut up now.” 

Tony blinked owlishly, trying to compute everything that The Angel had just spewed at him. Once he felt like he had some sort of grasp on what had just transpired he chuckled and replied, “No, you won’t be arrested. Although, I wish I could hear that story sometime. And yes, it is me, the Great Most Likely Concussed Tony Stark. Please just call me Tony, though, because firstly you’ve already seen me fall on my ass after flying into a street sign, and secondly Mr. Stark was my father and I strive to disassociate myself from him as much as humanly possible. 

"Now, not that I don’t love chatting with fallen angels at midnight, but I would really like to get to bed so I can wake up with a migraine and berate myself tomorrow, so if you don’t mind, could we…” Tony sheepishly trailed off as he gingerly massaged the growing lump on his head. 

Thankfully, it seemed like the gentle reminder had done the trick, and he soon found himself walking beside The Angel, who was so close he could smell him. Of course he smelled like sunshine and lavender, Tony thought deliriously, growing more and more convinced that he was still passed out on the ground and this was all a fever dream.

They reached the Tower door, and Tony turned to face The Angel. “Thanks again for doing this. I’m sad to see you go, I don’t even know your name for fuck’s sake, but this is probably for the best even if you’re one of the kindest bestest people I’ve ever met, and—”

“Steve!” The Angel who was apparently now “Steve” interjected. “My name is Steve Rogers, and when we were walking I kind of maybe slid my number into your pocket, so if you wanted, when you’re not concussed, you could text me and maybe we could meet for coffee? Not as a date if you don’t want to, I know that would be kind of forward and rushed of me, but—”

“Yes!” Tony hastily interrupted, before Steve’s tongue tied itself into knots. “Yes, I would love to go on a coffee date with you sometime. I’ll text you tomorrow when the sun is up to hash out the details?” Tony asked hopefully. 

“Sure thing,” Steve replied with a relieved grin. They stood there awkwardly for a moment longer, before Steve shifted his feet and said, “I should probably let you go now, huh? Goodnight Tony.” With that, he gave a cheeky two-finger salute and walked out the glass sliding doors. 

Dazed, Tony made his way to the penthouse and robotically got ready for bed. Once he was done and walking towards his beautiful bed, he found that he wasn’t loathing the idea of an empty nest so much anymore, and more surprising than that, he was actually looking forward to waking up the next day. He hadn’t felt like that in a long time. The last thought he had before drifting off to sleep was that maybe things were beginning to look up after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love it if you leave me kudos, and I would die for you if you leave me a comment! Please let me know if you liked it, loved it, or heck even if you hated it! I have some ideas for future chapters so if people let me know that they're interested I could definitely make that happen. If not, I have other prompts I could write too. 
> 
> If you guys want to chat, I’m on [tumblr](https://queene36.tumblr.com/) and [twitter](https://www.twitter.com/queene36/%E2%80%9C%20rel=). I’m also QueenE on the POTS Discord Server! I hope that you all have an amazing day and that everyone's staying safe and healthy :)


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